Natural rubber latex
Tree-tapped rubber for gloves, balloons and elastics. Latex gloves can break down in compost, but balloons do not break down in the sea, and…
Business
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Wool, cotton and linen textiles
Natural fibres that shed during washing like synthetics but biodegrade in months to years instead of persisting; the alternative to polyester, nylon and acrylic.
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Reuse and refill systems
Not a material but a system: returnable or refillable packaging that avoids single-use waste entirely, with 35 to 70 percent lower greenhouse gas (GHG)…
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Paper straws, and the caveat about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
The default plastic-straw replacement after bans, but a 2023 study found per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 90 percent of paper straw brands; stainless…
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Loose-leaf tea or plastic-free tea bags
Many tea bags are sealed with polypropylene or made from PLA mesh, which does not break down in a home compost heap.
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Coffee pods: reusable steel pod or ground coffee
A capsule a day is over a kilo of plastic and aluminium a year; a refillable steel pod or a stovetop and cafetiere removes…
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About 2% of all fishing gear is lost at sea every year
Interviews with fishers worldwide show enormous annual losses of nets, lines, hooks and traps, a lethal source of ocean plastic.
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Clothes washing and tyre wear are the biggest sources of ocean microplastics
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates 1.5 million tonnes of primary microplastics reach the ocean each year, over a third from synthetic…
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Bottled water contains around 240,000 plastic particles per litre
Columbia researchers used a new imaging method to count nanoplastics in bottled water and found roughly ten times more particles than earlier estimates.
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Lancet Countdown: plastics cost more than US$1.5 trillion a year in health damage
The Lancet’s new annual tracker calls plastics a grave, growing and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health.